variable for 'anyword'

[Nena]

I need to dim a variable representing any single word, of indeterminate length, but a single collection of letters. Seems easy enough. Help, anyone?

[dday9]

It sounds like you want to declare a String variable:

Dim anyword As String

The code broken down:

1. Dim - Starts the declaration process
2. anyword - Specifies the name of the variable
3. As - Required part of the declaration process
4. String - Represents the data type

Edit: String values are represented by double quotes, so if you wanted to assign the variable to some value it would be like this:

Dim anyword As String = "Hello World!"

'Or

Dim anyword As String
anyword = "Hello World!"

[Nena]

Maybe I've been over-thinking it. I'll give it a shot. Thanks.

[Nena]

I can't use it until I assign it a value. That's the catch. How do I assign anyword value of "any single collection of letters"?

[Nena]

This didn't work.

Dim anyword As Array(Of Char)

[boops boops]

I can't use it until I assign it a value. That's the catch. How do I assign anyword value of "any single collection of letters"?

Here's a way:

Dim anyword As String = String.Empty

Alternatively you can write "" (without any space) instead of String.Empty.

BB

[dday9]

Well a string is a collection of letters, but try declaring a List(Of String):

Dim anyword As List(Of String) = New List(Of String)

Then to add a value to it, call it's add method:

anyword.Add("foo1")
anyword.Add("foo2")
anyword.Add("foo3")

[Nena]

But it isn't really empty, is it? That seems to be the curb I keep hitting (over and over again).

[Shaggy Hiker]

Frankly, the whole question doesn't make a whole lot of sense, so everybody is kind of guessing at what you are wanting. You talk about a "single collection of letters". As opposed to what, exactly? Would there be multiple collections of letters? What would that look like?

[dbasnett]

I need to dim a variable representing any single word, of indeterminate length, but a single collection of letters. Seems easy enough. Help, anyone?

To 'Dim' a variable that can hold letters with a maximum length of approximately 2 billion letters do this:

 Dim anyword As String

[Nena]

1. door
2. window
3.
5. painting

Sorry to be vague, but I strive to be as brief as possible. I need to write a program that will 1) identify missing lines (i.e. "4.", from above) and 2) identify numbered lines that have nothing following the number (i.e. "3.). It's a poorly composed inventory for an estate sale. I want to go through the list and insert missing lines ("4. Missing") and information (3. NoDescription). I can format the text for each condition, and I know how to iterate the numbers, but the "no description" or "anyword" is jamming me up. Yawn for you folks. I'm grateful for any direction. At this rate, I could have sifted through these 100 pages by hand.

[Pyth007]

I'd agree with dday9 that that is probably what the question is attempting to find...

But being that programming is very exact and literal, then the question isn't quite right in that the answer is much more complex than a simple variable declaration. The reason why I say this is that the variable is supposed to represent "any single word, of indeterminate length, but a single collection of letters" but a String doesn't limit the variable to a single word nor does it limit it to just a collection of letters. A String is a type of variable that holds a collection of characters, including letters, numbers, and other characters like spaces and punctuation marks. Thus "123!?#$%" is still a valid String but wouldn't satisfy the restrictions of it containing only letters; likewise "Hello World!" is also a valid String but in this case represents 2 words as well as the exclamation mark. So while a String is the perfect choice for a DataType that can handle a single word of only letters, just that single variable declaration wouldn't be able to implement the other rules to ensure that it is only a single word and only of letters.

This is actually where Properties are a benefit when making complex programs. Properties are essentially variables that are tied to a particular class. You could make a simple Property very similar to declaring any other variable:

Private Class MyClass
    Public Property Anyword As String
End Class

Dim myInstance As New MyClass
myInstance.Anyword = "Hello"

However Properties are more powerful than a simple variable in that they have special methods called Setters and Getters that Set the Property to a value or Get the value that is currently stored, respectively. The power comes in terms of being able to handle other stuff when attempting to Set or Get a value. For example, let's say that you need to store a Username that needs to be at least 5 characters long but cannot exceed 25 characters. You might therefore set up a Property to check for these rules in its Setter:

Private Class MyClass
    Private strUser As String

    Public Property Username As String
        Get
            Return strUser
        End Get
        Set(ByVal Value As String)
            If Value.Length < 5 Or Value.Length > 25 Then
                MsgBox("Username must be between 5 and 25 characters in length.", MsgBoxStyle.Exclamation, "Invalid Username")
                strUser = ""
            Else
                strUser = Value
            End If
        End Set
    End Property
End Class

Dim myA As New MyClass
myA.Username = "oops" ' This will display an error message and will actually set myA.Username to an empty string ""
MsgBox("Variable myA contains Username '" & myA.Username & "'") ' Will display: Variable myA contains Username ''

myA.Username = "This Is OK"
MsgBox("Variable myA contains Username '" & myA.Username & "'") ' Will display: Variable myA contains Username 'This Is OK'

[techgnome]

Maybe you should show us what you DO have. There's no much point in us making suggestions since it still feels like we're just guessing.

-tg

[Nena]

Thanks.

[Nena]

I don't want to trouble you anymore. Thanks for the attention.